LAS VEGAS – Understandably, it was all about the expansion Vegas Golden Knights a year ago.

Their on-ice season of firsts, in fact, started with a rookie game against the Kings prospects on Sept. 12 at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.

Though the Kings won convincingly, the thing I remember most was how upset Golden Knights general manager George McPhee was afterward when he met with the media. Now NHL general managers usually don’t hold a post-game scrum with reporters after a rookie game. But this was a slice of Vegas hockey history, so McPhee made himself available and he was genuinely irritated by the loss.

“I’m trying to realize it’s a rookie game and everything else, but I don’t like 6-2,” McPhee said that day.

Almost a year later, it’s well worth remembering that rookie games and their more glamorous cousins, six-team rookie tournaments, quickly fade, like objects in the rear-view mirror.